CHARACTERS AND PARTIES
You need a party of Player Characters (PC) to play an UNLIMITED ADVENTURES adventure. You must choose the following for each character: a race, a class, and an alignment. After you select these, the computer generates a set of ability scores that define your new character's natural strengths and weaknesses. To build a party, you must create a mix of characters that have the range of skills needed for success, and then band them together. Player Races There are six races from which you may construct player characters, each with different talents and limitations. Tables beginning on page 48 summarize the racial class limitations and ability score modifiers. The following section describes each race and tells which classes are open to them. * Dwarves are a cunning race of sturdy workers and craftsmen. They are especially resistant to magic and poison. Dwarves are adept at dodging the attacks of giant-class creatures. Dwarves can be fighters, thieves and fighter/thieves. * Elves are a tall, long-lived race. They are nearly immune to Sleep and Charm spells and are adept at finding hidden objects such as secret doors. Elves also receive bonuses when attacking with swords or bows. They cannot, however, be raised from the dead. Elves can be fighters, magic-users. thieves, fighter/magic-users, fighter/thieves, magic-user/thieves, and fighter/magic-user/thieves. * Half-Elves are hybrids with many of the virtues of both humans and elves. Like their elf ancestors, they are resistant to sleep and charm spells and are adept at finding hidden objects. Half-elves can be fighters, magic-users, clerics, thieves, rangers, cleric/fighters, cleric/rangers, cleric/magic-users, fighter/magic-users, fighter/thieves, magic-user/thieves, cleric/fighter/magic-users, or fighter/magic-user/thieves. * Gnomes are shorter and slimmer than their dwarf cousins. Like dwarves, they are especially resistant to magic and are adept at dodging the attacks of giant- class creatures. Gnomes can be fighters, thieves and fighter/thieves. * Halflings are about half the size of a human, hence their name. They are especially resistant to magic and poison. They can be fighters, thieves and fighter/thieves. * Humans are the most common player- race in the Forgotten Realms. They suffer no racial level limitations or ability score modifiers. Humans do have the disability of shorter life-spans than the other races. This may be a problem if they are subjected to many haste spells, which age the character one year. They can be fighters, magic-users, clerics, thieves, rangers, paladins, and dual- class characters. Ability Scores Every character has six randomly generated ability scores as described below. These scores fall within a range determined by the race and class of the character. The base values range from 3 (low) to 18 (high). There are tables of limitations, modifiers, and bonuses starting on page 48. Depending on the character class, one or more of these abilities will be a prime requisite. A prime requisite is an ability especially valuable to a given class. For example, Strength is key for fighters and Wisdom for clerics. Most characters receive bonus experience points when their prime requisite scores are 16 or greater. Non-human characters may have modifiers to the basic ability scores to reflect differences between the races. Dwarves, for instance, get a + 1 Constitution bonus and may have a maximum Constitution of 19 instead of 18. All racial modifiers are calculated automatically when a character is generated. * Strength (STR) is the measure of a character's physical power, muscle mass, and stamina. Fighter-type characters (fighters, paladins, and rangers) may have exceptional Strengths greater than 18 that are indicated by a percent value (01, O2, 03... 98, 99, 00) following the base strength. High Strength increases a character's combat ability with melee weapons, such as swords or maces. Strength also determines how much a character can carry without becoming encumbered and slowed in combat. * Intelligence (INT) is the measure of how well a character can learn. Intelligence level determines the maximum level of spells a magic-user can cast. * Wisdom (WIS) is the measure of a character's ability to understand the ways of the world and to interact with the world. Clerics receive bonus spells for high Wisdom, and Wisdom determines the maximum level of spells a cleric can cast. * Dexterity (DEX) is the measure of a character's manual dexterity and agility. Thieves especially benefit from high Dexterity. Dexterity affects how well a character can use ranged weapons (bows, darts, etc.), when he moves in a combat round, and how difficult he is to hit in combat. * Constitution (CON) is the measure of a character's overall health. Characters receive one extra hit point if their Constitution is 15, and two points if it is 10. Fighter-types (fighters, rangers, and paladins) receive additional bonuses for constitutions of 17 or 18. A character's Constitution also determines the maximum number of times that character can be raised from the dead with raise dead or resurrection spells, and the chance of a resurrection attempt being successful. Every time a character is successfully resurrected, 1 point of Constitution is lost. * Charisma (CHA) is the measure of how others react to a character. Charisma is sometimes a factor when encountering NPCs the higher a character's Charisma, the more that character can persuade others to do what he wants. The character with the highest Charisma should be the active character when dealing with NPCs. Character Classes Classes are the characters' professions. A character must be at least one character class. Non-human characters can be more than one class at the same time. These multi-class characters have more playing options, but move up in levels slowly because experience is divided evenly among all classes. Characters receive hit points, spells, and abilities based on their class, level, and in some cases, ability scores. Refer to the tables at the back of this journal to find the number and size of hit dice a character receives, and the number of spells the character can memorize. * Clerics have spells bestowed on them by their deity and can fight while wearing armor. They may use crushing, not edged or pointed, weapons. Clerics have the ability to turn away, or even destroy some undead creatures such as skeletons or zombies. This power increases as the cleric goes up levels. Clerics must memorize their spells just as magic-users, but they do not use spell books. When clerics gain a new spell level, they can automatically memorize any of the available spells for that level. The prime requisite for clerics is Wisdom. * Fighters can fight with any armor or weapons, but they cannot cast magic spells. All fighter-types (fighters, paladins, and rangers) gain the ability to attack more than one time per round when they reach higher levels. They can also have exceptional Strength, gaining additional hit point bonuses if they have a Constitution of 17+. The prime requisite for fighters is Strength. * Paladins are a type of fighter, and can fight with any armor or weapons. They are resistant to spells and poison, and can turn undead creatures as if they were a cleric two levels below their current level. Paladins are also always surrounded by the equivalent of a protection from evil 10' radius spell. Paladins may heal two hit points of damage per level once a day. They may cure disease once a week for every, five levels of experience. For example, once a week at 1st-5th levels, twice a week at 6th-l0th levels. etc. They can use cleric spells when they reach 9th level, although they can never use clerical scrolls. They advance in spellcasting ability until 20th level. Paladins must be of lawful good alignment, and they will not knowingly adventure with any evil characters. They must have ability scores of at least 9 in Intelligence and Wisdom, at least 12 in Strength, at least 13 in Wisdom, and at least 17 in Charisma. The prime requisites for paladins are Strength and Wisdom. * Rangers are a type of fighter, and can fight with any armor or weapons. They do additional damage when fighting giant- class creatures. Rangers must be of good alignment and have ability scores of at least 13 in Strength and Intelligence, and at least 14 in Wisdom and Constitution. They can use druid spells when they reach 8th level, and magic-user spells when they reach 9th level. Their spellcasting ability advances until 17th level. Rangers can never use scrolls of any type. The prime requisites for rangers are Strength, Intelligence, and Wisdom. * Magic-Users have powerful spells, but call use no armor and few weapons. They can only memorize those spells available in their personal spell books. Magic-users may add entries to their spell books whenever they go up in level or find scrolls with spells of levels that they are able to scribe. * Thieves have special skills for opening locks and removing traps, but are limited to using swords, short bows, slings, and leather armor. In combat they do additional damage by 'back stabbing,' which is described in the Combat section, on page 19. Starting at 1Oth level, thieves can decipher some magical writing and have a chance of casting spells from magic-user scrolls. The prime requisite for thieves is Dexterity. Multi-class characters are non-humans who belong to two or more classes at the same time. Multi-class characters' experience points are divided among each of the classes, even after they can no longer advance in one or more of those classes. Their hit points per level are averaged among their classes. Multi- class characters gain all the benefits of all their classes with regard to weapons and equipment. Dual-class characters are humans who had one class for the first part of their career, and then changed to a new class for the remainder of their career. These characters use the HUMAN CHANGE CLASS option in on the Training Hall menu to pick a new class. Once a character changes classes, he cannot advance in his old class. Dual-class characters do not gain hit points and cannot use the abilities of the old class while their new class level is less than or equal to the old class level. Once the character's level in his new class is greater than his level in his old class, he gains hit points according to his new class and may use abilities from both classes. Human dual-class magic-users cannot cast magic-user spells while they are wearing armor, unless they are a ranger/magic-user dual-class. Alignment Alignment is the philosophy a character lives by. It can affect how NPCs and some magic items react to a character. The possibilities range from believing strongly in society and altruism (lawful good) to being anarchistic and actively unpleasant (chaotic evil). Alignment is presented in two parts: World View and Ethics. World View Lawful indicates that the character values the structure and rules of society. Neutral indicates that the character values both the individual and society. Chaotic indicates that the character values the individual over society. Ethics Good indicates that the character tries to act in a moral and upstanding manner. Neutral indicates that the character leans towards situational ethics, evaluating each set of circumstances. Evil indicates that the character acts without regard to others, or in an overtly malignant manner. Player characters cannot be evil. Other Attributes Each character also has three important values that change as the game goes on: hit points, experience points, and levels. Hit Points are a measure of the amount of damage a character can take before he becomes unconscious. A character's maximum hit points are based on the hit dice for the character's class and level, plus any adjustments for Constitution. A character gains a hit point bonus to each hit die if his Constitution is over 14. Experience Points are a measure of what a character has learned while adventuring. Characters receive experience points for actions such as fighting monsters, finding treasures, and successfully completing quests. The computer keeps track of experience, and when characters earn enough, they may advance in levels. See the Level Advancement Tables beginning on page 54 for experience requirements. The designer of an adventure determines how much experience new characters start with. In The Heirs to Skull Crag, characters start out with 50,000 experience points, which will make most single-class characters sixth or seventh level. Levels are a measure of how much a character has advanced in his class. When they have enough experience points, characters may go to a training hall and receive the training required to increase in level. Characters may only advance one level at a time. Note: Dice (d) is the term used to describe the range for a randomly generated number. Dice are referred to by the range they represent. A d6 has a range from 1 through 6, a dl0 has a range from I through 10. Hit dice refers to the base range of hit points a character class may have. For example, a 3rd level fighter has a base of 3 dl0 hit dice, or 3-30 hit points. When a character takes enough damage that his hit points reach 0, he is unconscious. If the character's hit points drop to anything from -1 to -9, he loses 1 hit point per turn from bleeding until he is bandaged or dies. If a character has -10 hit points or less, he is dead. However, hit points on the screen will never be displayed as less than 0. Note: If a character has gained enough experience to go up two or more levels since the last time he has trained, he goes up one level, and loses all experience in excess of one point below the next level. Example: A 9th level thief enters a training hall with 375,000 experience points (enough for 1lth level). He will leave as a 10th level thief with 220,000 experience points, one point below 11th level. Non-human characters cannot train for new levels once they have reached their maximum levels allowed in UNLIMITED ADVENTURES. Building a Successful Party Forming a strong and adaptable party is a key to success in UNLIMITED ADVENTURES. Up to six Player Characters (PCs) may be in a party a party with fewer is less powerful and more likely to be eliminated by opponents. Include a variety of classes in a party to get a good mix of skills. Here is a sample party: *1 Human Magic-user *1 Human Paladin *1 Dwarf Fighter/Thief *1 Human Ranger *2 Human Clerics This party is balanced for combat, and will advance quickly because most characters are single class. The magic-user can cast offensive spells and use wands. If the paladin is high enough level, he gets the benefit of Protection from Evil in a 10' radius. All characters in range of the effect get an AC improvement of two against evil foes. The dwarf fighter/thief offers the advantages of a thief (lockpicking and disarming traps) with the better armor and hit points of a fighter. Rangers do extra damage against giant-type creatures and gain spellcasting ability. Clerics are absolutely essential for their healing spells. Preparation Tips Once the party has banded together, have it camp at an inn, and ready its equipment. Have all of the spellcasters memorize spells. Finally, save the game before continuing. Game Manual COMBAT